Archive for March, 2012

I’ve just returned from a much-needed family sojourn to the Gulf of Mexico to celebrate Spring Break. Lots of long walks and talks mixed in with some intense writing time.

All this moodling, talking and walking gave rise to a single common theme for everyone in our family: we are each trying to do too much. The Young Turk was the first to pipe up with this observation about himself. “Can I stop doing so much every day, Mom? I just want time to hang out at home without feeling rushed.”

Wise words for a nine-year old, don’t you think?

The more we talked about his desires, the more I realized I wanted the very same thing. Time to just hang out and be. It seemed like an impossible desire to fulfill considering the sudden take-off of my new thing, Fierce Loyalty. I’m writing a book, crafting guest posts, speaking at events, conducting interviews and a million other things that take up precious time.

And guess what? None of them are getting the proper time and attention. I’m moving so fast that I’m not doing anything well. And since I am the source of all this creation, I’m squandering the resource by spreading it to thin.

So, starting this week, I’m cutting back. I have to if I want to produce my very best work. What does that look like?

1. I’m paring down my coaching clients so I can give my best to a small group.

2. I’m cutting back on my blog posting. Not forever but until I get some other major writing projects out of the way.

3. My social media time is getting loped to a minimum. I still show up most days, but I don’t camp out on Twitter like I used to.

4. My newsletter will go out every other week now. Since I put it together myself, I want what I send to be rich and meaningful rather than something I dash off because it is “Newsletter Day”.

5. I’m building in “do nothing” time for every single day. The more I tap my creativity, the more I’ve got to have this time to re-fill the well.

Oh – and I’m making calls and cutting back on The Young Turk’s commitments, too. He is a creative and an empath just like me. I want him to learn to value Do Nothing time as a way to re-fuel and re-charge now before the world teaches him that it’s a waste of time. 🙂

What about you? Are you feeling spread to thin? In need of some carved out Do Nothing Time so you can bring your best self back to the task at hand?

After figuring out how to hurdle a number of technological hurdles, I’ve finally converted the entire 28 Days to Building Fierce Loyalty Guest Blog Series into an e-book. You can grab it for free and with no opt-in required at my new site, Fierce Loyalty.

I’ve written about this topic before but I’ve gotten a ton of questions lately about how I get so much stuff done while still being a good mom to the two small turks and a decent wife to Turk Senior. So I’m writing about it again. 🙂

Please note: I am not a big organizational freak and this is the only “system”, if you will, that gives me enough structure and enough flexibility to tame the wildness that is my life.

If you find it useful – yay! If not, that’s okay too. 🙂

Monday: Admin Day. This is the day I meet with my team, pay bills, all things paperwork related. This is also the day I look over the coming week, month, 90 Days to think about and plan for upcoming business opportunities.

I pre-write my Monday blog post so all I need to do is edit a just a bit.

I make a master Task list for the week. I just split a piece of paper into two columns, one labeled Work and one labeled Home. then I brain dump everything that needs to get done in the week. Then I build my daily to-do lists from this master list.

Tuesday: Focus Day. These are the days that I concentrate on my high-payoff business activities. For me, focus days are for coaching clients, leading classes, speaking, writing, going to appointments, etc.

Focus days are also for communicating with prospective clients about coaching, speaking opportunities, guest blog post opportunities, etc. The point is that I’m doing what needs to be done to generate revenue, either now or sometime in the future.

Wednesday: Focus Day

Thursday: Focus Day

Friday: I alternate this between Admin and Focus depending on what needs the most attention at the time. If Monday was a school holiday, this is my catch up day. And if I’ve been super super productive – I get to take Friday off and have a Play Day. 🙂

Again – these definitions aren’t rigid. But I have found that if I start blurring the lines between how I define my days, they all start to become one big blur. By focusing my energy, I actually give myself the gift of momentum and can get a good bit accomplished in a short amount of time.

Am I able to stick to all of this 100% of time? Absolutely not! But I figure if I can stick to it about 70% of the time, I’m doing pretty well.

Wow that was fun! People always ask me if doing a month-long guest series is worth all the time and energy it requires of me. After just completing my fourth one, I can tell you that YES! it is totally worth it!!

In fact, one of the things I encourage each of my private clients to do is put together their own guest blog series. It’s not because I want them to be like me, it’s because there are hard business objectives that a blog series can accomplish for you. Here are my top 5:

1) By choosing the right theme for your series (I highly recommend choosing your Big Idea), you can carve out expert space for yourself and be seen as a leader in that field. For example, I chose Building Fierce Loyalty as my theme this time around because I want my name associated with that idea. It was an excellent lead up to launching my Fierce Loyalty site.

2) You get to partner with peers and influencers who can help you spread the word. No one is going to send out a stand alone email to their list about writing for your series. Most, however, will use their social media channels on the day they post to your series. Both the influencers and their audiences will start connecting your name to your Big Idea.

3) Your tribe, community – whatever you call it – will connect you with the Big Idea behind your theme. The more people who connect your name to your big Idea the better. And it gives you room to expand on your Big Idea with your tribe listening.

4) Done correctly, traffic, SEO, Google searches, etc., will all go up, meaning that even more people see your name and your Big Idea in the same place.

5) (And my VERY favorite) You get to build incredible relationships with your tribe because of the prolonged conversations that are happening around your Big Idea. And to be clear, your tribe includes you subscribers, your commentors, your lurkers, your guest authors, your social media audiences. Reactions, discussions, conversations around your Big Idea will give it layers, nuance, and depth. Plus, building relationships is just a really awesome thing to do. 🙂

So there you go. Five reasons doing a guest blog series is awesome for your Big Idea. And just so you know, every participant at my Live Entrepreneur Expedition gets my Blog PowerUp Playbook that walks you through EXACTLY how to do a guest blog series. Read about the Expedition here and the Playbook here.